Multiple Bit Rate Streams - How to choose which bit rate to record?

[Kron]

I was wondering if there's any stream recorder that actually lets you choose which bit rate to record on multiple-bit-rate streams. I've tried several tools (including WM Recorder) that claim to do that by selecting a connection speed but I keep getting the whole mbr stream, wich means wasting bandwidth and diskspace. Am I doing something wrong?

I haven't really seen any media stream recorder that can record the whole multiple bit rate stream. Stream recorders work the same way streaming media players work, so they must choose a bit rate to record.

What stream exactly are you trying to record? Please post a web-page and stream URLs so that I can check it out.

Originally Posted by Kron

The feature i'm asking about is better described in the user guide of SDP. See "Stream Rates Tab"
http://sdp.ppona.com/readme/readme.html#anchor44769

Say for example this video mms://wmsvidzone.ld.mediawave.co.uk/secvidzone/0011161.wmv
If I play it in Windows Media Player and the highest bitrate is selected, only 22MB are transeferred. But if I record it, I get a 61MB file that includes 7 bit rates (from 28 Kbbp to 715 Kbps). Btw, I can extract the desired clip with Windows Media Stream Editor (wich would solve the diskpace issue). My problem is when it comes to live streams and the total bitrate is higher than my connection speed: I can play them, but if I try to record them there's of course loss of packets.

I downloaded the clip with WM Recorder, Replay A/V, NetTransport using the highest bit-rate possible. I got 62MB file.

There are no media stream recorders that can record all the bitrates of live stream simultaneously. Any stream recorder as well as streaming media player negotiates the bit-rate before starting to receive data from the streaming server.

There must be some problem with your evaluations of traffic transferred.


Obviously live streams are much harder to get whether you wanna watch them or record them. No one has offered a 100% reliable live stream distribution method yet.

The following FAQ may help you with poor quality of live stream recordings:
Troubleshooting: Poor audio/video quality of a stream

Thanks for your help, Stream Recorder. If you got the 62MB file then you too are getting the whole mbr stream: just play it in wmp and check the size of the .dat file stored in your Temporary Internet Files folder or open the wmv file with Windows Media Stream Editor and extract the highest bitrate.
My guess would be that, unless there's something wrong with our settings, the stream recorders we've tried don't support the Intelligent Streaming technology wmp uses. I'm pretty sure that dial-up users are able to play the stream in real time but get the 62MB file too when recording it.
In case I didn't make it clear before: those live streams I'm trying to record, I can play them smoothly but record them with gaps only.

The problem is that the .dat file you mentioned doesn't store your stream. You can use a traffic meter software to measure the traffic generated by the stream. I bet there won't be any difference between WMP and stream recorders.

Besided if you look at the file properties you won't find multiple bit-rates in the recorded file.

I'm pretty sure the stream is stored in a .dat file as I can play it offline. Anyway, forget about the .dat file and please try for yourself opening the wmv file with Windows Media Stream Editor (included with Windows Media Encoder). I swear you are able to extract every single bitrate that's delivered according to the connection speed of the final user.

.dat files store some stream information, but you can't play them with Windows Media Player like .ASF, .WMV, .WMA files.

I don't have the Windows Media Stream Editor. I watched the file properties with Media Player Classic. It showed one audio track only.

And I perfectly know that NetXFer was able to select a single bit-rate in a zillion of times when I was recording primarily Real Video streams. I bet all other media stream recorders do the same.

To test it you may use WM Recorder in PRO or ADA mode. In these mode WM Recorder captures packets from the Windows Media Player.

[Kron]

.dat files are playable offline not directly but by opening their (original) url in wmp and selecting the "work offline" option.
Most players I've tried show only one audio and video track in file properties, however VLC Player shows them all.
I haven't tried recording Real Video mbr streams so I don't know about them, I've only had this problem with Windows Media streams.

Originally Posted by Kron

.dat files are playable offline not directly but by opening their (original) url in wmp and selecting the "work offline" option.
Most players I've tried show only one audio and video track in file properties, however VLC Player shows them all.
I haven't tried recording Real Video mbr streams so I don't know about them, I've only had this problem with Windows Media streams.

VLC Player must be showing information about the stream, not about the recorded file.

[Kron]

No. In fact, you can select which tracks to play.